Theodicy and Anxiety: contributions of Augustine of Hippo athought on the problem of evil in coping with anxiety

Abstract

Anxiety has always been present in the history of mankind, and nowadays, its eff ects are increasingly accentuated and the number of those aff ected by it, increases signifi cantly, mainly due to the social impositions of this time. There are diff erent ways and levels by which anxiety aff ects the individual, in its most diverse areas, such as: personal, family and social. A very common cause among anxiety disorder suff erers is the inability to cope with chaos, suff ering or any manifestation of what has been called evil. Theodicy is concerned with working on the attributes of God and his relationship to existence and the problem of evil. In fact, one of the anxieties that affl ict the human being is the complexity of the origin, existence, advancement and the most diff erent materializations of evil. The complexity in relating the goodness and the power of God with the existence and reality of evil, has plagued many people, but it has also motivated theological and philosophical thinkers to work on elaborations around this problem, however, very few have reached the level of contribution in this. area like Augustine of Hippo, who lived in the fourth century and who has been considered one of the greatest collaborators in the development of Christianity.The purpose of this text is to presente a refl ection on a possible contribution of the theological-philosophical elaboration of this Catholic bishop on the problem of evil to those who suff er from anxiety disorder, such as the unfolding of the inability to deal with the most varied forms of suff ering.